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Leading IT analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) has published a new research report “Network Engineering and Operations in a Multi-Cloud World.” This report is based on a survey of 250 enterprise IT decision-makers with direct involvement in their cloud networking strategy and several one-on-one interviews with network architects and IT executives.

Join Shamus McGillicuddy, research director at EMA, for a webinar that will explore the results of this research.

Kemp, a leading vendor of load balancers and application delivery controllers, announced the Kemp 360 AX Fabric (AX for application experience). This solution introduces an end-to-end approach to the automated delivery and management of application delivery services in any private or public cloud. It includes Kemp’s LoadMaster application delivery controller (ADC); Kemp 360 Central, an orchestration and automation platform for LoadMaster and third-party load balancers; and Kemp 360 Vision, an analytics platform that monitors and analyzes Layers 4 through 7 network and application performance.

On December 18, 2018, Cisco announced its intent to acquire Luxtera, Inc. for $660 million in cash and assumed equity awards. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of Cisco’s 2019 fiscal year, which ends in late April. Luxtera is a leading provider of silicon semiconductors, and its chief products are optical transceivers. Cisco was a leading Luxtera customer and reseller before they announced this deal.

The future of the wide-area network (WAN) has arrived. The majority of enterprises are fully engaged with software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) technology. Now it’s time to understand how enterprises can succeed with this newly emerged class of networking solutions. Leading IT analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) has published new research that explores WAN transformation from all directions.

This research report on WAN transformation looks beyond the hype of SD-WAN to understand exactly how enterprises should be tackling change in their networks. Based on a survey of 305 enterprise WAN decision-makers and subject matter experts, this report examines all aspects of WAN transformation, from cloud enablement to internet migration, and then looks at how SD-WAN fits into the picture. The research identifies best practices, and it offers some warnings on what enterprises should definitely not do with their networks.

This white paper explores the modern infrastructure operations requirements of enterprises that are embracing digital transformation and hybrid IT infrastructures. It highlights the challenges and requirements that IT organizations face when going on this transformational journey. Finally, it reviews the value of CA's infrastructure management solutions with respect to helping digital businesses meet these challenges and requirements. The solutions include CA Network Operations Analytics, CA Unified Infrastructure Management, and CA Digital Operational Intelligence.

As enterprises reinvent their wide area networks to support business growth and digital transformation, secure software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) will become essential. Drawing upon new Enterprise Management Associates research, this white paper explores why enterprises are transforming their networks today, and how software-defined WAN with integrated security can guarantee success.

The CEO or CIO of a company often drives digital transformation, which leads to investments in software-defined architectures, cloud, the Internet of Things, and other major disruptors. IT operations teams are not designed to manage disruptive technology, especially not at the rate of change that many CEOs and CIOs demand. What should they do? This white paper discusses how IT operations should respond to digital transformation and be a change agent.

Leading IT analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) has published new research that explores the evolution of network packet brokers (NPBs). Based on a survey of 250 network management and security decision-makers with direct involvement in their organization’s network visibility fabrics, this research examines evolving requirements, use cases, and best practices for building and using network visibility fabrics with NPBs.

Join Shamus McGillicuddy, senior analyst at EMA for a webinar presentation that explores the results of this research.

This Enterprise Management Associates research report examines emerging requirements for delivering network traffic data to out-of-band and inline network and security analysis tools. Specifically, it looks at the current usage of and emerging best practices for network visibility fabrics and network packet brokers. Based on a survey of 250 IT professionals, the research also explores next-generation use cases like traffic monitoring in virtualized infrastructure and the public cloud, and it looks at evolving form factors, such as disaggregated "white box" network packet brokers.

This Enterprise Management Associates research report examines emerging requirements for delivering network traffic data to out-of-band and inline network and security analysis tools. Specifically, it looks at the current usage of and emerging best practices for network visibility fabrics and network packet brokers. Based on a survey of 250 IT professionals, the research also explores next-generation use cases like traffic monitoring in virtualized infrastructure and the public cloud, and it looks at evolving form factors, such as disaggregated "white box" network packet brokers.

These slides--based on the webinar featuring Shamus McGillicuddy, senior analyst at leading IT analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), and Jon Kies, manager of network management product marketing at Micro Focus--explore why and how enterprises are aligning NetOps and SecOps.

San Jose-based startup Arrcus, Inc. emerged from stealth mode to introduce ArcOS, a robust network operating system for disaggregated, scale-out network infrastructure. Unlike many operating systems for so-called white-box networking, ArcOSTM uses open standards and is suitable for just about any networking use case across physical, virtual and cloud network environments. The company also announced a $15 million Series A investment from General Catalyst Partners and Clear Ventures.

In addition, the company revealed that ArcOS enables a comprehensive telemetry solution for network fault, performance management and security use cases. Arrcus is coming to market with an unusually mature network operating system for disaggregated network solutions, making it an EMA Vendor to Watch.

A large enterprise is using SolarWinds® Network Automation Manager (NAM) to manage a complex, distributed network. The company's network team uses the solution to monitor and troubleshoot the network, manage change, and support next-generation technologies.

Network managers often build their careers on their ability to fix problems. Whether that comes from proactive problem prevention or reactive troubleshooting, it’s all about uptime for them. However, today’s enterprise expects more from the network and the network team. The modern network manager needs to be a partner, not a firefighter. They need to optimize their tools and processes to move on from the troubleshooting mindset. This will require advanced network visualization solutions and increased network automation. This paper reviews these issues in detail and reviews the capabilities of NetBrain, a provider of dynamic network mapping and automation technology.

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (HPE), introduced the Software-Defined Branch, a solution for end-to-end networking across distributed enterprises. The solution leverages existing technologies, such as the ClearPass network policy management platform and the Aruba Central cloud-based network management system. It also includes new software-defined WAN technology. When combined with Aruba’s switching and wireless LAN products, SD-Branch gives enterprises an option for an end-to-end networking solution across local and wide-area networks.

EMA research determined that network infrastructure teams are finally embracing next-generation technologies, like public and private clouds and software-defined networking. Regardless of where they are on the network transformation journey, network managers need to become more strategic about network management tools. Based on the latest research from Enterprise Management Associates, this white paper offers a guide to building a network management tool strategy.

Network monitoring solutions rarely focus exclusively on the network today. These products need visibility across the entire data center as well as into public cloud environments. Enterprises need service-centric visibility into hybrid infrastructures that span multiple data centers and clouds. Such tools can support the network operations center and cross-domain IT operations teams.

Given this market evolution, EMA has replaced the Enterprise Network Availability Monitoring System (ENAMS) Radar the new Enterprise Hybrid Infrastructure Management (EHIM) Radar. This report evaluates IT monitoring systems with deep network visibility and very good monitoring visibility into the full data center infrastructure stack and public cloud environments. Such products allow IT operations teams to monitor private, hybrid, and multi-cloud infrastructure.

Network monitoring solutions rarely focus exclusively on the network today. These products need visibility across the entire data center as well as into public cloud environments. Enterprises need service-centric visibility into hybrid infrastructures that span multiple data centers and clouds. Such tools can support the network operations center and cross-domain IT operations teams.

Given this market evolution, EMA has replaced the Enterprise Network Availability Monitoring System (ENAMS) Radar the new Enterprise Hybrid Infrastructure Management (EHIM) Radar. This report evaluates IT monitoring systems with deep network visibility and very good monitoring visibility into the full data center infrastructure stack and public cloud environments. Such products allow IT operations teams to monitor private, hybrid, and multi-cloud infrastructure.

Based on a survey of 250 North American and European IT decision-makers, the Enterprise Management Associates® (EMA™) Network Management Megatrends 2018 research examines evolving network management tool requirements, new network operations organizational strategies, emerging drivers of network decision-making, leading challenges to network operations, and more. It also looks at the impact of emerging macro trends, like cloud networking, the convergence of network operations and IT security, network automation, and the expansion of network management outsourcing.

As business and technology evolve, so do enterprise network management strategies. Since 2008, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) has been tracking network management trends as part of its biennial Network Management Megatrends research. This ongoing study identifies emerging network tool requirements, network operations strategies, and organizational challenges. It also examines how certain macro-trends are affecting the network management team.

Join Shamus McGillicuddy, senior analyst of network management at EMA, for a webinar that will explore the results of this research.

This report recognizes three EMA Innovator Award winners that advanced the networking industry during the second half of 2017. EMA bases its award selection upon its original research on enterprise networking trends, interaction with the industry, and conversations with network practitioners. To be eligible for this round of awards, vendors had to announce a product or technology in the second half of 2017.

From mobility to the Internet of Things, today’s digital initiatives require a network that is high-performing, dynamic, and affordable. The IT organization must be able to scale network capacity quickly and deploy the most cutting edge network technologies in support of new initiatives.

From mobility to the Internet of Things, today’s digital initiatives require a network that is high-performing, dynamic, and affordable. The IT organization must be able to scale network capacity quickly and deploy the most cutting edge network technologies in support of new initiatives.

Join Shamus McGillicuddy, senior analyst at leading IT analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), and Sauveur Baruch, business programs director at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE), for a webinar on how enterprises are transforming their networks for the digital future and how ALE’s Network-as-a-Service (Naas) solution, including Network-on-Demand enables that transformation.

Attend to discover:

The challenges of supporting digital initiatives with legacy networks

The ideal approach to modernizing enterprise networks

How ALE’s Network on-Demand solution provides an affordable and flexible approach to connecting the digital enterprise

Software-defined networking (SDN) is no longer hype. Enterprises are evaluating, testing, purchasing and deploying the technology today. SDN adds new network elements, new abstractions, new protocols, and new device relationships to data center networks. To ensure that enterprises succeed with SDN, network management tools must evolve to support these new architectures.

Network fault and performance monitoring tools along with network configuration and change management (NCCM) tools have an important role to play in future SDN engineering and operations. Many of the network management challenges that SDN presents to enterprises are addressable by existing tools, as long as those tools evolve to work with SDN. This white paper explores how network management tools should adapt to SDN. It also explores how Micro Focus' Network Operations Management Suite is adapting to SDN and leveraging integrations within its core components, Network Automation and Network Node Manager, to offer enterprises a single state-of-the-art network management solution for their combined SDN, virtual and traditional networks.

Network managers and engineers are mandated to support a broad set of new digital initiatives, but they must do so within the constraints of a limited budget and with minimal personnel. To meet the demands of the business, the network infrastructure team needs solutions that allow them to build and manage networks that are flexible, affordable, and easy to implement and manage.

This paper explores these challenges in depth and also reviews Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise’s new Network-as-a-Service solution, a suite of network hardware and management software that addresses all of these challenges. Enterprises can consume the entire suite of hardware and management software on a pay-as-you-go model with subscription fees based on actual network consumption or on an installed capacity.

As enterprises become more distributed and migrate applications to the cloud, they will need to diversify their network performance management solutions. In particular, the network operations team will need to complement its packet-based monitoring tools with active test monitoring solutions to enhance visibility into the cloud and help enterprises scale monitoring gracefully and cost-effectively.

Cisco unveiled the Network Assurance Engine, a critical piece of its intent-based networking solution set. This assurance engine gives network managers deep visibility into network state and ensures that network intent and network reality are one and the same, even as the network evolves dynamically.

This webinar highlights the findings of Enterprise Management Associates’ (EMA’s) new research report, “Advanced Network Analytics: Applying Machine Learning and More to Network Engineering and Operations,” based upon a survey of 200 IT professionals directly involved in an enterprise network analytics initiative. The webinar will explore the technology strategies, data collection priorities, organizational benefits, and challenges of cutting edge network analytics strategies.

Join EMA senior analyst Shamus McGillicuddy for presentation that will answer the following questions

Who sponsors network analytics projects and who consumes the insights?

What analytics solutions are enterprises using? What heuristics do they apply?

This EMA end-user research study examines how enterprises extract more value and insights from network data through the use of advanced analytics technology, including predictive analysis, machine learning, and more. Based on a survey of 200 IT professionals directly involved in network analytics initiatives, this report identifies technology choices, data collection strategies, project drivers, organizational impacts, and business and technology challenges.

The network operation center (NOC) for the city of Los Angeles had been investigating various network management platforms to gain adequate visibility into a complex municipal network. When it implemented Infosim StableNet for infrastructure monitoring, it was able to shift from a reactive approach to network management to a proactive one. Moreover, Infosim’s ability to customize its monitoring platform has proven to be invaluable to the city, especially when the NOC was asked to begin monitoring the addition of an Internet of Things (IoT) deployment.

As enterprises adopt new technologies to thrive in the digital economy, IT organizations must deliver high-performing and agile networks to support them. Yesterday’s network engineering and operations tools aren’t adequate for this new reality. Network teams need advanced analytics solutions that can glean more insight and value from network data and streamline and optimize networking tasks.

This whitepaper, based on a survey of 200 involved in advanced network analytics initiatives, offers insights from a forthcoming research report from Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), “Advanced Network Analytics: Applying Machine Learning and More to Network Engineering and Operations.”

Join Shamus McGillicuddy, senior analyst at leading IT analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) and Steven Shalita, vice president of marketing and business development at Pluribus Networks, to learn how the most forward-thinking enterprises are leveraging software-defined technologies to make their data centers more agile, programmable, resilient, and visible.

Join leading IT analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) to understand how new technology innovations in the area of network analytics are helping enterprises to reduce optional costs while assuring superior user experience.

These slides--based on the webinar featuring Shamus McGillicuddy, senior analyst at EMA, and Nysansa--illustrate how new technology innovations in the area of network analytics are helping enterprises to reduce optional costs while assuring superior user experience.

This white paper examines the value of the Remediation Engine, a new capability of the Nyansa Voyance user performance management platform. The Remediation Engine leverages full-stack network analytics to provide a workflow for proactive prevention of user network problems. This solution should help network managers reduce the amount of time they spend troubleshooting and allow them to deliver a more consistent user experience to the enterprise.

For its new research study, “Data Center Network Transformation,” leading IT analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) surveyed 200 IT professionals who are directly involved in transforming their data center networks.

This webinar will explore key findings from this research, including technology selection, technical and business challenges, operational impacts, and organizational change.

Today's enterprises increasingly require data center networks that are more agile, higher performing, more resilient, and more automated. To meet these requirements, IT organizations are adopting new network technologies, including software-defined networks, network virtualization, network orchestration and automation software, disaggregated switches, and much more. This end-user research report is based on a survey of 200 IT professionals directly involved in data center network transformation projects. It identifies the technologies and strategies they use and the challenges that enterprises face with such transformation initiatives. It also identifies some emerging best practices.

The EMA Innovator Awards recognize products and services that demonstrate true innovation in the IT industry. On a rolling basis, EMA analysts present these awards to vendors that have advanced their respective industries and solved pressing problems for their customers.

This report recognizes three EMA Innovator Award winners that advanced the networking industry during the first half of 2017. The following pages explore how these award-winning products address the challenges that today’s network managers struggle with.

Many network managers use a large and fragmented set of tools to monitor and troubleshoot their networks. As network complexity increases with the adoption of new technologies like cloud computing and the Internet of Things, network managers must modernize and consolidate their management systems. This paper offers evidence for why this is important and provides some guidance on how to proceed.

NETSCOUT, a network and application service assurance vendor, introduced a suite of software that provides full network packet visibility into hybrid cloud and multicloud architectures. The suite includes vSCOUT and vSTREAM, probes that can capture key performance indicators and packet data in cloud environments. It also includes vNG1, a cloud-ready version of NETSCOUT's flagship nGeniusONE service assurance solution.

A global manufacturer with a complex multivendor wireless LAN adopted 7SIGNAL EyeQ to improve wireless network operations. 7SIGNAL leverages active and passive testing in the wireless environment to provide sustained client-side network monitoring at a large scale. With the 7SIGNAL EyeQ system, the global manufacturer was able to improve overall network health and performance and reduce the mean time to resolution of network problems.

With organizations embracing transformational technologies like mobility, the Internet of Things, and the cloud, enterprise network infrastructure requirements are evolving rapidly. In the face of this change, network infrastructure teams need to maximize the time they spend on planning, designing, implementing, and optimizing new network connectivity and services. To accomplish this, network managers must modernize the tools they use for monitoring and troubleshooting their networks. This paper offers a roadmap for network tool modernization and reviews two leading network management solutions from SolarWinds, Network Operations Manager and Network Automation Manager, both based on the SolarWinds Orion® Platform.

This end-user research study examines how enterprise network infrastructure teams contribute to the Internet of Things (IoT) strategies at their organizations. It reveals the planning and engineering challenges they encounter and the architectural choices they make to deliver connectivity to IoT devices. The research also examines how network infrastructure teams manage, monitor, and troubleshoot IoT networks and, in some cases, the IoT devices themselves. Finally, the research examines some of the organizational impacts experienced by network teams when they implement IoT projects.

In a new research study, "The Internet of Things and Enterprise Networks: Planning, Engineering, and Operational Strategies," leading IT analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) explores the strategic role the network team plays in enterprise IoT initiatives. For this research, EMA surveyed network infrastructure professionals who were directly involved in at least one of their organization’s IoT projects. The research explores the organizational roles network professionals play in IoT, the technologies they adopt, and the challenges they face.

Join Shamus McGillicuddy, senior analyst of network management at EMA, for a webinar that will explore the results of this research, including the following highlights:

An overview of how enterprises provide network connectivity to IoT devices

This end-user research study examines how enterprise network infrastructure teams contribute to the Internet of Things (IoT) strategies at their organizations. It reveals the planning and engineering challenges they encounter and the architectural choices they make to deliver connectivity to IoT devices. The research also examines how network infrastructure teams manage, monitor, and troubleshoot IoT networks and, in some cases, the IoT devices themselves. Finally, the research examines some of the organizational impacts experienced by network teams when they implement IoT projects.

Software-defined networking (SDN) is not hype. Enterprises are testing, evaluating, and deploying the technology today. SDN adds new network elements, new abstractions, new protocols, and new device relationships to data center networks. To ensure that enterprises succeed with SDN, network management tools must evolve to support these new architectures.

Network configuration and change management (NCCM) tools have an important role to play in future SDN operations. Many of the network management and operations challenges that SDN presents to enterprises are addressable by NCCM platforms, as long as those platforms evolve to work with SDN. SDN makes networks much more dynamic and automated. As enterprises use SDN programmability to rapidly provision and deprovision network services for applications, their networks will be constantly changing. While SDN automates many aspects of networking, enterprises will still need a tool to manage and audit the configurations of SDN architecture. A traditional NCCM tool is best positioned to meet this requirement, but NCCM must evolve to support these new architectures. This white paper explores how NCCM tools should adapt to SDN. It also explores how HP Software’s NCCM solution, HP Network Automation (NA), is adapting to SDN and leveraging integrations with other HP management tools to offer enterprises state-of-the-art network operations options for their SDN endeavors.

While software-defined networking (SDN) has emerged to solve many of the network operations challenges faced in enterprise data centers today, the technology is itself disruptive to the network management tool industry. SDN introduces new levels of abstraction and dynamic change not seen before in enterprise networks. Network performance and fault management platforms in particular must evolve to understand these new network abstractions and to both react to and implement rapid and automated change. These platforms must shift from a device-centric view of network health to a more holistic view that better understands application flows and dependencies. This white paper explores these issues in depth and illustrates how HP Software's Network Node Manager i (NNMi) is evolving to address them.

Arista Networks announced a containerized version of its Extensible Operating System (EOS), the software that powers its data center network switches. This containerized software (cEOS) can be run on any Linux distribution. There are two primary outcomes of this software change. First, data center operators who use cEOS-based Arista switches will be able to unify network management with DevOps orchestration. Second, cEOS will run on third-party switch hardware, which makes Arista the latest mainstream manufacturer of network switches to embrace the disaggregation of network hardware and software.

Cisco introduced the Enterprise Network Compute System (ENCS), a network-optimized computing platform designed to host virtual network functions and services in branch offices and other remote sites. With appropriate software, it can replace multiple network appliances. More importantly, it offers the performance and scale of a network appliance with the flexibility and agility of a generic computing platform.

F5 Networks, one of the world's leading providers of application delivery infrastructure, recently unveiled its 2017 cloud strategy and roadmap. F5 will grow the number of public cloud providers that it partners with to allow users to apply its BIG-IP application delivery services to workloads in the public cloud. F5 also plans to introduce several new technologies in 2017 that will enhance an enterprise's ability to leverage BIG-IP services in public and private clouds. Specifically, F5 expanded the choice of form factors that users will have for consuming BIG-IP services in the public cloud by creating an option for applying hardware-based services from a colocation center to workloads in the public cloud. Also, users will be able to apply lightweight F5 traffic management services to container-based private clouds.

Network operations teams typically rely on a fragmented set of monitoring and troubleshooting tools, a situation that leads to ineffective management and network instability. IT organizations must adopt a new tool strategy that emphasizes integration, consolidation, and advanced analytics including big data. This strategy should not only focus on improved network operations. Given that network data can provide insight into security operations and business operations as well, network managers should explore how a new tool strategy can contribute to their IT organization as a whole and the business it serves.

Network operating system vendor Cumulus Networks announced Cumulus Express, a series of off-the-shelf data center switches preloaded with its software. Cumulus Express gives mainstream network infrastructure professionals a pre-packaged option for consuming disaggregated switches. It will be especially useful for network teams that are testing and evaluating disaggregated switches for their data centers.

This paper explores the challenges that enterprise organizations face when building networks to support hybrid cloud and multi-cloud architectures. It also reviews an enterprise cloud-defined networking solution from Aviatrix that helps solves these challenges.

Leveraging in-depth interviews with Aviatrix customers, this paper identifies the use cases enterprises can pursue with this networking solution, and it quantifies the cost savings and business benefits that can be realized with the cloud-defined networking solution. IT organizations that are considering Aviatrix's cloud-defined networking solution can use this paper as a reference guide for estimating the potential business value of a successful implementation of the Aviatrix network solution.

Distributed enterprises are discovering that traditional wide-area networks (WANs) no longer meet their business requirements. Cloud adoption, business growth, and the changing nature of applications are forcing network infrastructure teams to adopt new hybrid WAN architectures that rely more on broadband internet for primary network connectivity. Software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) is a new class of network technology that has emerged to meet these new architectural requirements. This paper explores how distributed enterprises are using SD-WAN to build a next-generation network.

IT organizations have ceased treating network infrastructure as utilitarian plumbing. In this digital age, network and application managers know that as the foundational element of application delivery, the network must be monitored and optimized for application performance. The network is also an invaluable source of data for insight into application and service performance. These new realities are prompting application and network teams to collaborate. They need network and application performance management tools that can provide them with insight into how network health and performance affects application performance and end-user experience. This white paper explores these issues in depth and highlights Riverbed SteelCentral AppResponse 11, a new network and application performance management solution that leverages network packet data and encourages collaboration between application and network management teams.

Networking startup Aviatrix enables enterprises to build scalable and secure private networks across multiple public cloud providers. Using a software-defined networking (SDN) architecture, the company eliminates the need for IT organizations to cobble together individual virtual private network (VPN) connections into various public cloud environments. Instead, enterprises can build a hybrid cloud network via Aviatrix's central controller, which is deployable either in the cloud or in the enterprise data center.

These slides - based on the webinar - provide key insights to safeguard and improve your organization’s digital transaction performance, drawing from new research from leading IT analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) on IT analytics and digital transformation.

Most enterprise network infrastructure teams already provide connectivity to at least one Internet of Things (IoT) initiative, and many of them play a leading role in planning, implementing, and managing IoT projects. To succeed with these projects, networking teams will need management tools that give them visibility and control over IoT devices and applications. Some networking professionals may be tempted to buy new management tools to address IoT, but this approach may lead to more complexity. Instead, enterprises should consider extending their existing network management systems to support IoT. This paper explores these issues in detail and identifies one example of a network management product whose users are currently extending to IoT, Infosim StableNet.

The managed services advanced technologies group of a Tier 1 telecommunications service provider is using ScienceLogic's hybrid IT monitoring platform to manage its enterprise customers' Cisco's Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) deployments. ScienceLogic's ability to integrate with and monitor Cisco's software-defined networking solution has allowed this service provider's operations team to deliver reliable data center network services to its customers.

Too many enterprises have failed to recognize the network as a strategic asset that can provide unique insight into not just IT operations, but business operations, too. In a digital business, every transaction and every business process crosses the network as data in motion. IT operations has an opportunity to leverage this data flowing across the network to gain insight into business and IT operations in a way that hasn’t been possible before. The ExtraHop stream analytics platform unlocks the power of the network, transforming data in motion into rich wire data to deliver real-time visibility, insight, and control for the real-time enterprise.

EMA "Vendors to Watch" are companies that deliver unique customer value by solving problems that had previously gone unaddressed or provide value in innovative ways. The designation rewards vendors that dare to go off the beaten path and have defined their own market niches.

This document contains the 2016 EMA Vendors to Watch in the Network Management field including:

Current technology and business trends are transforming how distributed enterprises build and manage their wide-area networks (WANs) and deliver applications and services to remote users. Big data, the cloud, and the Internet of Things are just a few of the technologies that are forcing these changes. Meanwhile, enterprises are growing their WANs. They are adding more remote sites to their networks and connecting more endpoint devices to those remote sites.

This research report examines how enterprise network infrastructure teams responsible for planning, building, and managing the WAN are responding to all of these pressures. This report examines how networking professionals are using software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) and network functions virtualization. It also examines in detail the enterprise migration from WAN connectivity via private managed services to public internet and wireless WAN technologies. Finally, it identifies which tools enterprises are using to monitor and manage their evolving WANs.

Many enterprises are embarking on a digital transformation journey that will drive growth and complexity in their networks. They are adopting new technologies like software-defined data centers, software-defined wide-area networks, hybrid clouds, and the Internet of Things. Legacy network management tools will often struggle with these changes. IT organizations will need tools that can scale and adapt to evolving digital infrastructures. This white paper explores these issues in detail and examines how SevOne's Digital Infrastructure Management Platform addresses them.

Current technology and business trends are transforming how distributed enterprises build and manage their wide-area networks (WANs) and deliver applications and services to remote users. Big data, the cloud, and the Internet of Things are just a few of the technologies that are forcing these changes. Meanwhile, enterprises are growing their WANs. They are adding more remote sites to their networks and connecting more endpoint devices to those remote sites.

This research report examines how enterprise network infrastructure teams responsible for planning, building, and managing the WAN are responding to all of these pressures. This report examines how networking professionals are using software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) and network functions virtualization. It also examines in detail the enterprise migration from WAN connectivity via private managed services to public internet and wireless WAN technologies. Finally, it identifies which tools enterprises are using to monitor and manage their evolving WANs.

VMware announced on June 13, 2016, that it intends to acquire Arkin, a software-defined data center (SDDC) operations vendor that specializes in providing monitoring and analytics for data centers that use VMware's NSX network virtualization overlay solution. VMware will initially make Arkin's solution available as an add-on license for new and existing NSX customers. The company will eventually integrate and extend Arkin’s platform into its suite of vRealize Operations products.

Digital transformation isn't about enterprises finding a way to replicate the success of disruptive startups. In a rapidly changing economy, innovation trumps imitation. Enterprises that have been disrupted should move past the upstarts by innovating new business models. These new business models will require continuous development of new applications and services and a digital infrastructure that is agile enough to support them.

As enterprises embark on a digital transformation journey, they need a business assurance platform that provides IT with insight into the current state of their infrastructure, helps them plan their transformation journey, and gives them the analytics and intelligence they need to understand the health and performance of the new applications they roll out to support their transformation efforts.

As enterprises adopt hybrid software-defined infrastructure, IT organizations need management tools that provide visibility and control over the entire infrastructure domain. With increased virtualization, new software-defined technologies, and multiple public and private clouds, the levels of abstraction in these enterprises are simply too complex for the sprawling management toolsets that many IT organizations have in place. Organizations need to find ways to consolidate visibility and management wherever they can. Hybrid infrastructure management vendor Hyperglance offers enterprises a visibility and control layer inspired by video game graphics. It can collect data from multiple technologies and domains and present it in one interactive view with live fault and performance information that IT teams can immediately take action on from within the tool.

To support digital transformation IT organizations will be asked to adopt new technologies and architectures, including software-defined networking, hybrid clouds, and the Internet of Things. Many IT organizations are finding that their existing infrastructure monitoring tools do not fully support these technologies. While many IT professionals will be tempted to buy new tools to operationalize these technologies, they may benefit from adopting unified infrastructure monitoring tools that can be extended to support new digital infrastructure. This white paper explores these issues in detail and reviews the suitability of ScienceLogic, a leading provider of hybrid infrastructure monitoring, for addressing these management gaps.

Hybrid IT and cloud architectures are key enablers of digital transformation, but IT operation will need the right tools to assure applications and service performance in these new environments. Hybrid IT combines a variety of legacy and next-generation technologies, which presents a conundrum for the IT organization. Do they combine their existing management and monitoring tools with new tools that address new technologies like containers, cloud, and software-defined infrastructure? Or should they take a more unified approach to IT operations but extend their existing monitoring tools?

For the sake of efficiency and operational effectiveness, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) recommends that IT organizations extend the visibility of their existing tools whenever possible. This paper explores a leading option for that approach. With its Unified Infrastructure Monitoring (CA UIM) solution, CA offers a hybrid IT monitoring platform with visibility into traditional and next-generation technologies. CA UIM's modular architecture allows CA to extend visibility into new technologies on a continuous basis without reboots or software upgrades.

Enterprise network managers tend to use large, diverse sets of management tools to monitor and troubleshoot their networks. EMA research has found that maintaining such an overcrowded management toolkit can make network operations dangerously ineffective. To address this problem, network managers need to take a strategic approach to how they procure and use their management tools. They should consolidate wherever possible and use unified, multifunction management systems that streamline their work processes and eliminate gaps in network visibility.

Network managers at small and medium enterprises face many of the same challenges that their counterparts at large enterprises face, plus a few of their own. For instance, networking professionals at smaller companies often operate enterprise-grade technologies with fewer resources and smaller budgets. Therefore, these individuals need network availability and performance monitoring systems that are tailored to the technical requirements and business needs of small and medium enterprises. Enterprise Management Associates research has identified the key challenges that smaller companies face with network operations and identified the management tool capabilities that deliver the most value to these organizations. This white paper explores these findings and examines how Paessler PRTG Network Monitor, a leading network monitoring tool, addresses the unique needs of small and medium companies.

EMA "Vendors to Watch" are companies that deliver unique customer value by solving problems that had previously gone unaddressed or provide value in innovative ways. The designation rewards vendors that dare to go off the beaten path and have defined their own market niches.

This document contains the 2016 EMA Vendors to Watch in the Application Management field including:

Networks have always been essential to the success of IT as they serve as the connective tissue for all other elements of IT infrastructure and services. However, in recent years, enterprises have begun leveraging networks as competitive assets. Given this reality, the network is now held to a higher standard of availability and performance than ever before. The tools and practices that network management teams use to deliver quality network services are more important than ever.

This ENTERPRISE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATES® (EMA™) research report takes a detailed look at the current state of networks and network management. It examines several major areas of change and evolution affecting network management, or what EMA calls "megatrends." These megatrends include hybrid cloud networking, the Internet of Things, advanced network analytics, network management outsourcing, and network management tool consolidation.

Networks have always been essential to the success of IT as they serve as the connective tissue for all other elements of IT infrastructure and services. However, in recent years, enterprises have begun leveraging networks as competitive assets. Given this reality, the network is now held to a higher standard of availability and performance than ever before. The tools and practices that network management teams use to deliver quality network services are more important than ever.

This ENTERPRISE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATES® (EMA™) research report takes a detailed look at the current state of networks and network management. It examines several major areas of change and evolution affecting network management, or what EMA calls "megatrends." These megatrends include hybrid cloud networking, the Internet of Things, advanced network analytics, network management outsourcing, and network management tool consolidation.

As part of its new NetDB stack of advanced software features built upon its Extensible Operating System (EOS), Arista Networks has added a streaming telemetry and analytics feature that allows its switches to push data to network management systems in real time. This streaming telemetry feature gives network managers more granular and real-time insight into the state of their network than the traditional polling mechanisms used for collecting device metrics. In addition to streaming analytics, NetDB also includes improved routing scalability, hybrid cloud visibility and management features, and container visibility. EOS will also now host containers, where network operators can host applications.

Dell Networking has introduced Operating System 10 (OS10), a Linux-based network operating system (NOS) for disaggregated (i.e., bare-metal) network devices. Dell will ultimately support OS10 on all its switching hardware; however, its legacy NOS software (OS6 for Dell’s campus switches and OS9 for Dell’s data center switches) will continue to be available as Dell gradually rolls out OS10.

Enterprises are migrating applications and services to the cloud, but they are not completely abandoning their internal IT infrastructure. Network operations will be tasked with monitoring and troubleshooting both internal infrastructure and external public cloud infrastructure. Given this reality, network operations must adjust their management tools and practices for a hybrid world where applications and services span private infrastructure and public clouds.

Viavi Solutions has introduced Observer SightOps, a cross-domain infrastructure monitoring system with visibility into private cloud, their associated components like virtualized servers, and leading public cloud environments. SightOps offers network operations an option for unified monitoring and troubleshooting of hybrid infrastructure.

Cisco's second generation of Nexus 9000 data center switches can provide unrivaled granular visibility into network traffic via NetFlow. These switches can capture and process every flow at line rate at speeds of 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps, thanks to a new family of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that are built into new fixed and modular Nexus 9000 switches.

Infrastructure testing and visibility solutions provider Ixia introduced Hawkeye for proactive service-level agreement (SLA) and user experience monitoring. Hawkeye generates and analyzes synthetic network and application traffic to model how applications will perform on the network. Hawkeye can provide pre-deployment validation of application performance and allow IT operations to proactively assess production application performance even when there is no actual traffic to monitor and analyze.

Cloud-based WAN services provider Aryaka introduced SD-WAN ULTRA, a solution that combines its WAN optimization and cloud acceleration capabilities with advanced edge networking technology. SD-WAN ULTRA is a managed service that will help international companies overcome the challenges of connecting global remote sites to public and private clouds.

Infoblox announced a new reporting feature, Infoblox Reporting and Analytics, for its network infrastructure management products. The new capability leverages the data Infoblox collects via its network protocol services and address management products to give enterprises better insight into their networks.

Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) research has revealed that communications service providers that have adopted software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) lack the tools they need to manage these new networks. Unless they modify or replace their operations support and readiness tools and service assurance systems, these communications service providers will fail to gain a return on investment with SDN and NFV. CA Technologies has introduced Virtual Network Assurance, a software gateway that SDN- and NFV-enables its leading network management products.

Enterprise Management Associates research has revealed that early adopters of software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) lack the tools they need to manage these new networks. Unless they modify or replace their monitoring and troubleshooting tools, these enterprises will fail to gain a return on investment with SDN. CA Technologies has introduced Virtual Network Assurance, a software gateway that SDN/NFV-enables its leading network management products.

The Fort Bend County Libraries (FBCL) in Texas had a bandwidth problem, both at the Wi-Fi access layer and with the gateway to the organization’s Internet service provider (ISP). Three thousand daily users, most of them visitors to the 11 branches of the library system, were saturating the network with bandwidth-intensive applications. The FBCL infrastructure team either needed to upgrade its ISP links and its WLAN or it needed better visibility and control over application streams. They chose the latter, an easier and more affordable option, by adopting Network Performance Enforcement software from Saisei.

Midmarket network management vendor Paessler AG has enhanced its PRTG network availability monitoring system with the ability to monitor infrastructure from the perspective of critical applications and services, giving administrators the ability to more directly support business processes.

Software-defined networking (SDN) has the potential to be the most disruptive technology the networking industry has seen in a generation. While SDN and related technologies, such as network virtualization and network functions virtualization (NFV), offer both enterprises and network service providers the opportunity to make their networks more agile, automated, and transformative for the business, there are many unanswered questions. For instance, we don't fully understand how networking organizations will engineer and operationalize SDN. Furthermore, it is becoming quite clear that existing network management tools and practices are not fully prepared to support these new architectures.

This research study explores these issues in detail. EMA has surveyed early SDN adopters among enterprises and network service providers to understand how organizations are using SDN, network virtualization, and NFV. More importantly, this study reveals just how prepared these early adopters are to manage these technologies. It assesses the readiness of enterprises to manage data-center SDN underlays and overlays, software-defined WAN, campus SDN, and enterprise NFV. The research also reveals the abilities of network service providers to manage SDN and NFV in their telco networks.

As this report will demonstrate, the majority of enterprises and service providers have discovered that their existing network engineering, monitoring, and troubleshooting tools do not fully support SDN, NFV, and network virtualization. This EMA research report identifies the functional requirements that SDN adopters want added to their management systems. It also explores the use cases, benefits, and organizational impacts of SDN adoption.

Software-defined networking (SDN) introduces unprecedented dynamism and virtualization to the core networks of communications service providers (CSPs) and very large enterprises. Given that CSPs use management systems that were designed to operate and maintain static, hardware-centric network infrastructure, network operators are discovering that their existing toolsets aren't ready to support SDN. They need new tools with real-time visibility and analytics that can help them validate that the highly programmable SDN technologies they are implementing are actually helping them achieve their network transformation objectives. Packet Design is leveraging its heritage as a route analytics innovator to deliver an SDN management and orchestration solution to CSPs and large enterprises.

Software-defined networking (SDN) has the potential to be the most disruptive technology the networking industry has seen in a generation. While SDN and related technologies, such as network virtualization and network functions virtualization (NFV), offer both enterprises and network service providers the opportunity to make their networks more agile, automated, and transformative for the business, there are many unanswered questions. For instance, we don't fully understand how networking organizations will engineer and operationalize SDN. Furthermore, it is becoming quite clear that existing network management tools and practices are not fully prepared to support these new architectures.

This research study explores these issues in detail. EMA has surveyed early SDN adopters among enterprises and network service providers to understand how organizations are using SDN, network virtualization, and NFV. More importantly, this study reveals just how prepared these early adopters are to manage these technologies. It assesses the readiness of enterprises to manage data-center SDN underlays and overlays, software-defined WAN, campus SDN, and enterprise NFV. The research also reveals the abilities of network service providers to manage SDN and NFV in their telco networks.

As this report will demonstrate, the majority of enterprises and service providers have discovered that their existing network engineering, monitoring, and troubleshooting tools do not fully support SDN, NFV, and network virtualization. This EMA research report identifies the functional requirements that SDN adopters want added to their management systems. It also explores the use cases, benefits, and organizational impacts of SDN adoption.

With Entuity Network Management 16.0, Entuity is evolving its flagship product from an event management and response tool to a network operations system. The company has introduced a more advanced network topology mapping system designed to support continuous monitoring. It has added a configuration management feature that enables network automation. Entuity has also integrated with popular incident management platform ServiceNow.

Big Switch Networks, Facebook, and NTT unveiled a modular version of Open Network Linux that can support multiple forwarding agents. The open source network operating system will allow data center operators to run highly customized data plane software on bare-metal switches without having to rewrite the core operating system. Open Network Linux is part of the Open Compute Project, Facebook's initiative to create open source data center hardware and software.

Enterprises are adopting hybrid clouds and software-defined infrastructure to accelerate their ability to deliver scalable applications in a very competitive business environment. These new architectures are extremely complex, which is forcing IT organizations to establish multidisciplinary cross-domain operations teams to support them. These teams need unified performance management and service assurance platforms that encourage collaboration and provide cross-domain operational visibility. Riverbed SteelCentral Platform is an example of a management system that combines application performance management (APM), network performance management (NPM) and network configuration management into a unified solution that helps IT operations support application delivery more effectively and efficiently.

At its NXTWORK 2015 customer summit on November 3, Juniper Networks announced that it will decouple hardware and software across its entire line of enterprise network switches, starting with its new top-of-rack QFX5200. Juniper is fully embracing bare-metal switching. It will its highly-regarded Junos operating system (OS) and its hardware as separate products, and network operators will have three general options: They can run Juniper hardware and software as a traditional integrated package; they can run Junos on third-party network hardware; or they can run third-party network OS (NOS) software on Juniper hardware. Juniper is also opening up Junos to additional customization and programmability by providing network operators with access to the Linux kernel that Junos runs on. This access will allow engineers to install third-party software on switches powered by the NOS.

Fluke Networks Enterprise Solutions (recently acquired by NETSCOUT SYSTEMS, INC.) updated two of its handheld network engineering tools, the OptiView XG and the OneTouch AT, to support the deployment and operation of 802.11ac wireless local area networks (WLANs). The OptiView XG, a network analysis tablet, has been updated with an 802.11ac radio and embedded AirMagnet Mobile PRO software to enable engineers to conduct capacity planning, Wi-Fi coverage and performance testing, and interference detection and mitigation for the next-generation wireless technology. Fluke Networks has updated the OneTouch AT Network Assistant, a handheld network tester, to enable lower-level network technicians to analyze and troubleshoot wired and wireless connectivity. The OneTouch works with the OptiView XG to evaluate the capacity of wired infrastructure to backhaul traffic from 802.11ac technology, which pushes the overall bandwidth of Wi-Fi toward the gigabit-per-second threshold.

EMA "Vendors to Watch" are companies that deliver unique customer value by solving problems that had previously gone unaddressed or provide value in innovative ways. The designation rewards vendors that dare to go off the beaten path and have defined their own market niches.

This document contains the 2015 EMA Vendors to Watch in the Network Management field including:

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced a new open source network operating system (NOS) for bare-metal switches, and it launched an open source community with several other vendors to advance the software. Known as OpenSwitch, the software joins a growing number of proprietary and open source NOS options for data center operators who want to adopt highly programmable, hyperscale networking with disaggregated switch software and hardware. Although HP has open-sourced the software, it plans to offer a "curated," commercially supported version that will ship with its bare-metal Altoline switches. Intel, Broadcom, Accton, Qosmos, VMware and Arista Networks have joined the OpenSwitch community as charter members.

Cisco announced the general availability of Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller Enterprise Module (APIC-EM), a software-defined networking (SDN) controller designed to orchestrate and manage local-area networks (LANs) and wide-area networks (WANs) composed of Cisco infrastructure. APIC-EM is shipping initially with three network applications tailored to address specific use cases. The IWAN Application allows enterprises to provision and manage WANs based on Cisco’s Intelligent WAN (IWAN) architecture. The Plug and Play Application unifies the configuration process for Cisco switches, routers, and wireless access points. Finally, the Path Trace Application is a troubleshooting tool that can help administrators analyze and diagnose trouble on the path between any two network nodes.

Riverbed has unveiled plans for a new product line that will deliver software-defined WAN capabilities (SD-WAN) with application-based networking, native routing, path selection, and transport virtualization. Dubbed "Project Tiger," the new platform advances Riverbed beyond optimization of private WAN connectivity by providing a solution for application policy-based networking, centralized management and control, service-chaining of third-party network services, integrated performance management, and zero-touch provisioning. Project Tiger is still in development, but it should be available in 2016.

As part of its 5.0 release, IT systems monitoring vendor Opsview introduced a new user interface (UI) for its availability and performance monitoring solution. Opsview says the new UI reduces by 50% the amount of time it takes administrators to gain insight into their infrastructure. Opsview has also enhanced its device configuration editing capabilities with the ability to push out configuration changes to multiple devices at once. With the improved UI and the addition of mass configuration functionality, Opsview has added differentiation from open source and midmarket operations management rivals.

Athenahealth, a provider of cloud-based healthcare software, will replace more than a half-dozen stand-alone network management tools with Infosim StableNet. StableNet, an enterprise network availability and performance management system, will help unify operations by providing customizable dashboards and network transparency to all key stakeholders in Athenahealth's IT organization.

With its support of advanced Cisco technologies like Performance Routing and Application Visibility and Control, network performance management vendor LiveAction provides critical visibility and service assurance capabilities to Intelligent WAN (IWAN), Cisco's software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) solution. In general, SD-WAN solutions like IWAN introduce new and powerful technologies that help enterprises reduce costs and improve network performance and reliability. However, to fully take advantage of these technologies in IWAN, enterprises need a visibility and assurance platform that fully exposes IWAN's underlying technologies to the network management team. LiveAction provides that management and visibility layer. It empowers users to provision, monitor, and troubleshoot IWAN and adopt an application-centric, policy-based approach to wide-area networking.

On September 9, 2015, infrastructure management vendor BMC announced the acquisition of the technology assets of server performance and application performance monitoring specialist Boundary. Boundary delivers its performance monitoring technology via a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. Its chief differentiator is its ability to monitor infrastructure on an extremely short, one-second interval across public, private, and hybrid cloud environments. BMC, which offers a broad range of business and IT management software, will rebrand Boundary as TrueSight Pulse, aligning the tool with BMC’s TrueSight IT performance and availability management product portfolio.

Open network operating system vendor Cumulus Networks announced a free, virtual appliance that emulates its Linux-based network operating system (OS). Cumulus VX has all the features and functions of Cumulus Linux, the network OS that the company offers for bare-metal switches from original design manufacturers (ODMs) as well as some mainstream switch makers like Dell. However it is not meant to run on production switches or carry production data traffic. It is aimed at engineers who want to evaluate, design, and test Cumulus-based networks, and it is also for developers and Cumulus partners who want to develop applications and solutions on top of and around the company's platform. It runs as a virtual machine on a server or laptop, enabling engineers to work with Cumulus software without any specialized network hardware.

Log data analysis has traditionally been a forensic tool. The vast amount of machine data contained in log records has always been too unwieldy for real-time analysis and, therefore, has been difficult to integrate into infrastructure performance monitoring workflows. Instead, network engineers have relied on data sources that enable near-real-time analysis, such as Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) polling, flow analysis, and packet analysis. If and when network managers did turn to log analysis, it was only to understand an event long after it happened. But the log analytics status quo is changing. Increasingly, network managers are looking for ways to integrate log data into their overall performance management toolsets. This paper examines how log analytics can enhance network performance management. It also looks at how one solution from SevOne combines device metric analysis and network flow analysis with real-time log analytics to enhance network visibility and streamline triage and diagnostics workflows.

Openness is an essential element of next-generation network architectures. Open network technologies can reduce costs, enable cross-domain infrastructure automation, and enhance monitoring, troubleshooting, and traffic engineering capabilities. By providing open, programmable access to their platforms, vendors can help network operators and developers build highly responsive, scale-out network architectures that are cheaper to build and operate. Despite criticism from open networking proponents who claim it is a closed, proprietary system, Cisco's Application Centric Infrastructure, its flagship software-defined networking solution for data centers, is a surprisingly open technology. Cisco's open APIs enable enterprises and technology providers to integrate third-party systems into the product. Also, the components of ACI are extremely programmable.

Big data analytics enjoys a great deal of well-earned hype today. The application of advanced analytics to structured, partially structured, and unstructured data can unearth important insights that were previously impossible to find. If used correctly, big data can transform a business in countless ways. This research study by Enterprise Management Associates seeks to understand how big data impacts and transforms IT infrastructure. Not only does this report examine how the collection and analysis of vast amounts of data affects IT infrastructure and IT management practices. It also reveals how IT organizations transform themselves when they start to export IT infrastructure monitoring data to big data environments for advanced analytics. This report shows how big data analytics for IT enhances IT planning, monitoring, and troubleshooting practices and also reveals the types of IT monitoring data that organizations leverage for those purposes. Serving as a guide to enterprises that want to apply big data technology to their IT organizations, this report offers a roadmap not just for the optimization of IT infrastructure and operations, but also for the improved alignment of IT and business.

Kentik (formerly known as CloudHelix) has emerged from stealth mode with a new cloud-based network visibility and analytics platform that uses big data techniques to process billions of data records per day for real-time visibility. Kentik offers a SaaS platform that consumes network data from remote sites--including flow records (NetFlow, IPFIX, etc.) and SNMP and BGP data. Processing this data at terabit rates, thanks to a clustered, scale-out analytics architecture, Kentik offers customers multiple options for accessing its analytics. A network operator can simply access Kentik’s portal or integrate the provider's network analytics into their own management tools using Kentik's REST APIs and or a SQL-standard querying options. Kentik also offers an on-premises version of its platform for network operators whose policies require network analysis to be conducted in-house.

On June 23, 2015, Arista Networks announced CloudVision, software that serves as a single point of management, programmability, and visibility for a network composed of Arista switches. CloudVision also serves as a broker between Arista switched infrastructure and software-defined networking (SDN) controllers, infrastructure orchestration platforms, and other high-level management systems. CloudVision is not a management interface; instead, it is an instance of the Extensible Operating System (EOS), the network software than runs on all of Arista's switches. It runs as a virtual appliance in a data center and collects, analyzes, and programs network state across hundreds of Arista switches. Network engineers can use CloudVision to manage an entire Arista-based network like a single device. CloudVision also makes the process of integrating Arista switches into SDN controllers, management tools, and orchestration platforms far more scalable and streamlined. The southbound interface on an SDN controller, for instance, needs to connect only to CloudVision. CloudVision takes care of translating SDN programming to the rest of the network.

IT engineering services company iVision uses the SaaS-based IT Performance Monitoring platform from LogicMonitor to monitor and support infrastructure for customers of its managed services provider (MSP) offerings. By using the LogicMonitor solution as the basis for ongoing monitoring of nearly 2100 devices, iVision has simplified operations, sped up time-to-service, and eliminated the need for a full-time engineer dedicated to maintaining and administering its monitoring tools. As a result, iVision has achieved at least a $124,000 return on its investment in its first eight months with the product.

On May 11, 2015, The enterprise network used to be a walled garden where the IT organization owned or controlled 100% of the infrastructure. With that control came a degree of predictability for IT operations, which could maintain a fairly static set of tools and processes for managing, optimizing, and securing the infrastructure. Cloud services and mobility have blurred the lines of that walled garden, creating a new borderless world where delivering secure, high-performance applications and services is a much more complex task.

On June 9, 2015, Brocade announced its Flow Optimizer application for software-defined networks. The application integrates with any software-defined networking (SDN) controller based on the open source software developed by the OpenDaylight Project, which includes Brocade's SDN controller. Brocade has also certified the application to work with Brocade's OpenFlow 1.3-compliant ICX campus switches and MLX Series core routers. Flow Optimizer provides customers real-time insight into their network traffic while allowing them to control and take necessary action as needed. Traffic is collected using sFlow samples from the individual network platforms. The application then manages the traffic by instructing an OpenDaylight controller to communicate action on the respective traffic flows to the respective platforms using OpenFlow and in turn optimize the network. Brocade has designed the Flow Optimizer to be applicable to a broad set of use cases, including network attack mitigation, application traffic control, and traffic port mirroring.

The borders of enterprise network infrastructure are porous at best. It’s too late to close them, and it’s probably best that you don’t. Cloud services, mobility, and technology adopted by lines-of-business (also known as shadow IT) may erode much of the control you once had over your infrastructure, but your business is using these technologies for a reason. They get the job done.

What you need to do is gain as much visibility and management as possible over these networks and services. The Borderless Enterprise enables this transformation.

In May 2015, Big Switch Networks integrated its hyperscale software-defined network, Big Cloud Fabric (BCF), with VMware's NSX network virtualization overlay. Big Switch also enhanced BCF's existing integration with vCenter, VMware's hypervisor management platform. Big Cloud Fabric is a data center network system based on OpenFlow software-defined networking (SDN) and white-box switches. In the BCF 2.6 release, Big Switch's OpenFlow controller will leverage integration with VMware's vCenter application programming interfaces (APIs), to automate the provisioning of network connectivity for virtual machines managed by vCenter and to provide visibility into VMware environments for traffic between virtual machines (VMs). Furthermore, Big Switch will leverage the integration between vSphere and NSX to optimize its OpenFlow fabric for NSX overlays. This extended integration will also introduce the end-to-end network visibility and management capabilities that many enterprises are looking for with these new network architectures.

Hyperglance (Real Status) is a new network monitoring and management vendor that applies advanced gaming graphics techniques to network management. Hyperglance adds a visualization layer to the IT management stack using three-dimensional (3D), interactive topology maps with an overlay of near-real-time network monitoring data. Hyperglance focuses on the service relationships among physical, virtual, and cloud-based resources and gives administrators the ability to troubleshoot and optimize their networks through point-and-click functionality.

On May 11, 2015, AppNeta introduced User Experience Dashboards, a new set of management interfaces that extend the visibility of AppNeta’s SaaS Application Monitoring (SAM) solution to line-of-business managers. These dashboards enable business stakeholders to monitor the health of the SaaS applications that are critical to their organizations. The dashboards provide business context for application problems so that business managers can understand how business processes are being affected. The dashboards also reveal the source of SaaS application problems so that business managers can go to the appropriate support team for problem resolution.

The nonprofit Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania uses distributed network monitoring vendor NetBeez to monitor and troubleshoot IT services across the 49 sites connected to its network. By adopting NetBeez, Goodwill has gained both real-time and forensic visibility into broadband and DSL connections that it relies on for operating retail stores and delivering human services. In particular, NetBeez has improved Goodwill's ability to troubleshoot a new point-of-sale system that is critical for revenue generation.

Enterprise IT organizations are often organized into subgroups of technology specialists responsible for managing a particular domain in the organization, such as servers, networks, storage, virtualization, or applications. This siloed approach to IT operations is a natural outgrowth of the specialization of administrators who are equipped with narrowly focused management tools. As long as these administrators continue to live in their management silos, infrastructure operations will be slow to respond to change, and operational workflows will be slow and choppy. This status quo may have been acceptable a decade ago, but many enterprises have found that business conditions can no longer abide. Enterprises need to streamline IT operations to support a more agile approach to delivering new services and revenue-generating applications. The essential ingredient in achieving this aim is an infrastructure management toolset that breaks down silos and unifies monitoring and workflows. The time has come for unified infrastructure monitoring tools.

Enterprises have long considered live visibility into both network and application activity to be "must-haves" for many aspects of IT planning and operations. But the greatest value and impact is achieved when those two viewpoints are brought together so that relationships and dependencies can be revealed and understood by multiple relevant stakeholders. Never has this need for unified visibility been more critical than it is with the move to the hybrid enterprise, through which IT leverages a mix of on-premises and cloud-based resources to meet the needs of the served organization. This report reviews the primary challenges that IT teams face in establishing unified visibility and the key requirements that management solutions must meet to address those challenges, and it examines a Riverbed solution that has been specifically designed to offer a path to success.

On April 8, 2015, network performance management vendor InfoVista announced its intent to acquire Ipanema Technologies, a provider of wide-area network (WAN) optimization and control technologies. Ipanema's solutions include WAN optimization, application visibility and control, and dynamic network path selection. InfoVista, which describes itself as a provider of network performance orchestration, offers a carrier-grade, application-aware network performance management platform that it sells primarily to large enterprises and government agencies. The product is also part of a larger solution for communication service providers and mobile network operations that includes network planning, optimization, and monetization technologies.

On April 1, 2015, Cisco announced its intent to acquire Embrane, a startup that provides both software-defined network services and lifecycle management of those network services. Cisco will incorporate Embrane into its Insieme Business Unit, the division that develops Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI), Cisco's software-defined networking (SDN) solution for data centers. Cisco's acquisition of Embrane gives it a highly scalable, multi-tenant platform for virtual network services, including load balancers and firewalls. Embrane also offers a management and orchestration platform that can automate the deployment and lifecycle management of these software-defined network services within data centers. The deal also brings the founders of Embrane, seasoned Cisco veterans, back into the fold, giving Cisco a talent infusion around software-defined network services.

Packet-monitoring technologies have long served as essential tools for troubleshooting and managing the performance and security of networks. However, these tools are only as effective as the quality of the data fed to them. Large enterprises often deploy their packet-monitoring tools with network visibility infrastructure, including taps and packet-monitoring switches. Typically, packet-monitoring switches, also known as network visibility controllers, offer a rich set of traffic grooming features that help enterprises optimize and load balance the packet streams that are delivered to their monitoring tools. One might be tempted to assume that mid-tier enterprises, whose networks are smaller, would have far fewer requirements for packet-monitoring technologies. That is almost never the case.

On March 4, 2015, Emulex introduced innovations in key areas with its Endace line of network visibility products. It introduced three new EndaceProbe Intelligent Network Recording (INR) appliances (the INR 4104, INR 4004, and INR 8004). In particular, the EndaceProbe INR 4104 is one of the first enterprise network recording appliances to feature solid-state drive (SSD) storage for packet captures. The faster read-write capabilities of the EndaceProbe INR 4104’s SSD storage significantly increases the data rate that can be written to disk in a compact 1RU appliance. SSDs have no moving parts, which reduces long-term hardware failure rates compared to conventional hard drives. On the software side, Emulex added new visibility into the utility industry’s unique Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) traffic. With the ability to decode and understand SCADA-based industrial control protocols, Emulex is offering enterprises innovative network management options in the era of the Internet of Things.

Ixia introduced a new SDN-based feature on its network visibility controllers that adds cost-effective scalability to its architecture. The new ControlTower feature on Ixia's Net Tool Optimizer (NTO) appliances uses the SDN protocol OpenFlow 1.0 to combine a cluster of OpenFlow switches into a single virtual network visibility controller. In the ControlTower architecture, network engineers can deploy relatively low-cost OpenFlow switches at the server access layer in place of network visibility controllers. They can connect the SPAN ports of top-of-rack switches to the OpenFlow switches. Then a core or aggregation layer Ixia NTO appliance will autodiscover these OpenFlow switches and use ControlTower to incorporate them into Ixia's network visibility architecture. ControlTower's OpenFlow support allows engineers to manage an NTO appliance and up to eight OpenFlow switches as a single logical network visibility controller, and Ixia will expand the number of OpenFlow devices controllable from a single NTO appliance in the future. ControlTower will be available on Ixia's NTO 5288 and NTO 7300 appliances, and it will initially be certified to work with OpenFlow 1.0–compliant switches from HP Networking, Dell Networking, and Arista Networks.

In February 2015, network data analytics vendor Corvil refreshed its solution portfolio with the “Giga+” release. As part of this product update, Corvil added a number of new features and capabilities, ranging from increased buffering to better accommodation of remote wire data monitoring. But perhaps the greatest and broadest-reaching change is that with the Giga+ release, Corvil has decoupled its software from the underlying appliance hardware. Moving forward, the company will sell its physical appliances at cost and bundle that hardware with separately licensed software. Customers will be able to acquire and upgrade hardware and software independently, giving them more flexibility and savings opportunities. Furthermore, this move opens the door to a virtual appliance option for Corvil solutions, which is particularly important for organizations moving toward increasing their use of the external cloud providers as a part of their core infrastructure mix.

In October 2014, hybrid WAN specialist Talari Networks, partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to extend its Adaptive Private Networking capabilities into the AWS cloud. Talari's ability to apply enterprise-grade security, visibility, and control to public Internet connections will allow enterprises to treat the AWS cloud like any other node on the corporate WAN. This is meant to provide enterprises with predictable performance and security from applications running in AWS as well as from any SaaS applications that reside within AWS. The Talari Virtual Appliance CT800 is the product that delivers this new capability, expanding the border of the enterprise WAN into the public cloud, bringing visibility, control, and security to public cloud connectivity.

On January 28, 2015, network visibility infrastructure vendor Gigamon announced GigaVUE-OS, a bare-metal version of the operating system that powers its GigaVUE network visibility nodes. GigaVUE-OS is packaged with the Open Network Install Environment (ONIE), which allows it to run on ONIE-compliant bare-metal switches. Gigamon will initially certify GigaVUE-OS to run on bare-metal switches from two original design manufacturers (ODMs), Quanta and Agema. Network engineers can combine GigaVUE-OS with one of these "white-box" switches and operate it as a low-cost network visibility node within Gigamon's overall network visibility fabric. Gigamon will offer a perpetual GigaVUE-OS license for $8,495, but it will not sell the hardware. Enterprises will acquire the white-box hardware separately, either directly from ODMs or through channel partners. Overall, Gigamon estimates that a white-box GigaVUE-OS network visibility node will cost 20% less than a comparable vertically integrated GigaVUE appliance.